Just a note: Every now and then I make a new facebook album labeled NZ #. Right now I've made 4. So if you want to see a sampling of most of my NZed adventures, just pop on there and take a gander.
Note #2: In NZ they farm deer like cattle or sheep. It is sad because Bambi is the next red meat.
Stewart Island
We arrived at Stewart Island by way of ferry and we left our car at the hostel at Bluff. The ride over was a little bumpy. Every time the we hit a wave I flew a little bit out of my seat. It was a similar experience to my boat to Waya, Fiji. On the way over I puttered in an out of feeling sick and feeling excited going over such fun waves. When we got there it was slightly dreary and we headed off to the DOC office in the tiny town of Oban. We signed our letters of intention which are a safety precaution. They said how long we would be gone for and where we are going. If you don't come back, eventually someone will know to come looking for you. I wandered off to look around the DOC office and when I got back Gordon had struck up a conversation with a nice fellow named Tom. Tom is from the UK and we all ended up walking to the first hut together. It's kind of difficult to describe a walk/hike/tramp unless you're Bill Bryson. At some points we were in forest areas with huge ferns and green trees, it was a cross between a prehistoric forest and jungle. Since we started walking during low tide we were able to take the beach route instead of the forest route in two parts of the walk. It was a nice change and shortened the distance a bit. We got there fairly early in the afternoon and found that we had nothing to do. Gordon and I set up the tent and we both took naps. Tom was staying in the huts and came to visit a bit after dinner. We all went back to the hut to play some cards. Then we met a German named Claudia while we were playing cards. It was nice to be out of the wilderness and inside a hut because it kept the sand flies at bay. We had a nice evening playing cards and all agreed to meet up to walk the second day of the trail together.
The next day we were up around 8 am and met up with Claudia and Tom. Then we set off on our second day of walking. Gordon walks really quickly and had soon hiked out of sight. I kept a good pace with Claudia and Tom. We had some interesting chats while walking and eventually met up with Gordon while he was resting and fixing his lunch. We arrived at the hut and Gordon had already kicked back and started to relax. As Gordon and I were camping and not staying at the hut we found that we had to walk a further hour and a half. So we rested and played some cards with Tom, Claudia, Adrian and Elisa. Basically this was a long beautiful tramp with fun people and a bit of cards.
Then Gordon and I walked to the campsite and both kept an eye out for Kiwis (the birds not the fruit).
During the middle of the night we thought we heard something and got up. Turns out it was an angry hissing possum and not the elusive Kiwi.
On the final day of hiking Gordon was taking a bit of time to eat his breakfast so he suggested I walk on ahead. As he is such a quick walker, I agreed and just assumed he'd catch up. I enjoyed my solo walk. It was calm and peaceful even when I saw a tiny feral cat running around the forest. Again I was hoping for a Kiwi. Stewart Island is one of the few places left where you can see a wild Kiwi. I reached the DOC office in Oban after the 32 km tramp and sat down to wait for Gordon. Eventually he walked up and we set off to order some food from the infamous Kai Kart. I had been looking forward to eating there since we had started to plan the South Island trip. The seafood was delicious. We ate there for lunch and dinner. I had crab, cod, mussels, chips and other goodies. In the end I ate way too much food, but it was totally worth it. On the ferry back to the mainland Gordon and I met some Canadians, Alex and Tim. They were also doing the working and traveling thing. I really like meeting new people especially ones who have done a lot of traveling and have a lot of really fun stories.
Once back in Bluff, NZ we picked up our car and drove back towards Invercargill. We had to crash in the car as we couldn't find a good place the camp between Bluff and Invercargill. The next day we ran into Claudia and Tom in Invercargill. Then Gordon and I finally got showers which we really needed after our three day tramp in Stewart Island.
Then we headed up to Central Otago so we could start the Otago Central Rail Trail which is on the historic Otago Central Railway line. It runs from Clyde to Middlemarch. We started in Clyde and rode to Middlemarch. We had been planning to ride it in five days, but the bike rental people said that we'd get bored if we did it in five days. They were definitely right because we both got a little bored doing it in three days. We stayed in nice little farms and inns along the way. It was pretty easy riding and we ended up riding about 160 km total. I wouldn't want to do it again, but it was nice to get that experience. We had beautiful and clear weather during the whole trip, but it got pretty hot when the sun was high and we had to slather on the sunscreen.
Then we went to Dunedin to check out the Blue penguins. We waited at the Peninsula until sunset and then a few groups of little blue penguins swam up to the shore and started the dry off on the sun warmed rocks. Then they ambled up the hill to their DOC manmade huts in the hill.
We returned to Christchurch to rest a bit after our intense hiking and biking. Gordon went climbing with John and I had a movie marathon with Briony. We watched all three X-Men movies and Wolverine. I love Hugh Jackman.
Then Gordon and I drove up to Nelson and then Takaka to finally go kayak the Abel Tasman. We changed our mind because we wanted to go back to Takaka and put it off yet again. Once back in Takaka we did a bit of climbing and then I found an off track route that I wanted to tramp so we put off the Abel Tasman and decided to kayak it after the tramp.
Also I thought I had a parasite that I must have picked up in the Takaka river when we spent those 2 weeks climbing in Paynes Ford. I finally went to the doctor and had to get labs done. The common parasite tests came back negative so we were back to square one. I'm really glad that I got health insurance before I left because the money is really starting to add up. I told Jon that I thought I had gotten a parasite and he said that out of all of his friends he wasn't surprised that I might be the first to get one. Though we've determined it's not bacterial because the doctor made me take a weeks worth of antibiotics and it's not the common parasites.
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